


Perfecte Simpliciterque

by Elinie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:16:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28778157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elinie/pseuds/Elinie
Summary: He thought that there was nothing so beautiful as the stark contrast of grey sky and frozen landscape...until he saw her.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	Perfecte Simpliciterque

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mersheeple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/gifts).



> Title: "Beauty in Simplicity" (Latin)

Severus walked calmly around the Black Lake, taking slow deep breathes one at a time. It was his time to himself, his self-indulgence, his time to reflect and be grateful to the past year for everything it granted to him. Many beautiful things were blooming around Snape on his evening patrol of Hogwarts grounds. The water of the Lake was gently lapping the slightly frozen shore. The wind was whistling some mysterious song in the twilight silence. Snape lifted his head: there, in the distance, the smoke from the chimneys was slowly swirling to the sky. Stars twinkled at him, he didn't feel the need to scowl at them. 

Everything was...simply beautiful, for the lack of a better word. No matter how pathetic it might have seemed to his past-self, present Snape admired the beauty of nature in awe. He was always fascinated by the snow covering the trees or spreading a gentle fluffy blanket over the frozen ground. He thought that there was nothing so beautiful as the stark contrast of grey sky and frozen landscape...until he saw her.

She came to teach Arithmancy to Hogwarts, and Snape was awestruck by the natural beauty of one Hermione Granger. She still had her mane of brown hair, she somehow managed to tame and even arrange in beautiful chignons now, she never applied tons of makeup or some other glitter to her features unless it was strictly necessary - like Yule Ball or something, but she was beautiful to him. 

Snape let the slightest of smirks touch his lips: Hermione taught him to see the beauty in the simplest of things. For example, she always decorated their morning toasts with berries or funny faces made from cheese. She presented him coffee mugs with clever quotes. And she had a real talent for wrapping presents in all shades of colorful wrapping paper. Always with a ribbon tied in a bow and pinned to the left corner of the box. At first, he grumbled. He did his best: grumbling and sarcastic remarks were his native languages when communicating with the world. 

Hermione took none of that. She just laughed. She threw her head back, closed her eyes, and just had the audacity to...laugh at him: the scariest of all scary Potions Masters of the Dungeons. Snape gaped at her reaction for ten seconds and joined her in her joy. 

She taught him to smile. With her help, he wasn't afraid to laugh out loud anymore. 

One day Hermione just took him by the hand and dragged him along all her favorite places in Muggle London, far from prying eyes. They rode a roller-coaster and made faces for the photos in a photo booth, they ate ice-cream. He stole her cotton-candy. For a few hours, Snape experienced the childhood he always yearned to have but never did. All thanks to Hermione. 

She took a gentle approach with him, she never forced anything upon him, giving him the right to approve or deny. Reluctantly at first, but Snape learned to follow her steps and notice the beauty in simplicity. For beauty was everywhere: in nature, in the gentle song of the wind, in morning sunshine playing on her skin in the afterglow of their lovemaking, in his mug of cold coffee that Hermione liked stealing from him and forever forgot to finish. Beauty was in the chaos of her working place. Beauty was in the sterile cleanliness of his Potion's lab. Beauty was in herbs laying before him in disarray. Beauty was in a deeply concentrated Hermione who was trying to decide whichever experimental potion he was working at again. 

He appreciated that beauty now. 

Her gentle questions she asked him after a particularly challenging day. Her warm and tender hands she massaged his scalp with, almost making him purr in delight. Her apple pies she mastered only for him. Her nearness. Her very essence. 

Hermione radiated the beauty, and he was eager to follow her call. 

His life was always grey in the past, deprived of colors, stark contrasts, and bright sparkles. Snape lifted his head and gave a long look to their windows in his chambers of the Dungeons. He imagined Hermione sitting by the fireplace, an open book in her lap, her magic wand put aslant into her brown hair and a cup of cold tea left forgotten on the coffee table. Snape felt the desire to go home and be near her. 

Not to make love, though it was always an option, no, just to sit closer, to take her into his arms, and to listen to her voice retelling him the latest news and gossips of the day. He understood now that he craved this simplicity, that freedom to be himself, and to love the woman who accepted him as he was. 

For the first time in his life, Snape called the dungeons his _home_. The word stopped being some foreign concept to him. It was beautiful to him now. 

Snape looked up into the purple winter sky and smiled: the stars twinkled to him, bringing beauty, sparks, and colors to his once not so bright life. 

He turned around and took a slow walk back to Hermione. He was returning home. She waited for him there: his perfect, simple, and beloved witch. 

The End. 


End file.
